Local indie pop collective Gentleman Auction House kicks off its journey to Austin’s SXSW with a show tonight at the Bluebird.

The band has a busy half-year ahead of them, releasing two discs and playing plenty of shows here and around the region.

I spoke with multi-instrumentalist Mike Tomko yesterday about the new record and their plan of attack for SXSW.

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RC: Tell me about the new album.

MT: We actually have two releases coming out. An EP called ‘Book of Matches’ will be out May 6 and our full-length, “Alphabet Graveyard,” on June 3. We recorded both in DC at the end of October. The main difference from our past releases, I think, is that Eric (Enger) finally learned how to write songs for this band. Many of our earlier songs were written before we were a band, then adapted for the full band. The new record was written for the dynamics of the band and written, for example, for two drummers. There are a lot of rhythmic elements going on.

RC: Is it ever a challenge recording with so many members?

MT: Not really. Eric is our primary songwriter and he pretty much has a vision of how each song is going to sound, so the song is formed before its brought to band. The other players add little parts to embellish and make the song better, but we don’t change up the structure.

RC: What do you hope to get out of SXSW?

MT: The key is to play as much as possible and playing the right shows. Networking is also part of it. Luckily, our showcase this year worked out very well. We’ll be playing with cool bands who we’ve never seen before. It should bring a new dynamic to our draw in Austin. We were also very fortunate to be asked by the Billiken Club to play for their day party. We’ll also play for TucsonScene.com’s day party. Eric wrote our first batch of songs while living in Tucson, so we have some great ties there.

RC: How last year’s experience?

MT: We played the KDHX day party and it was a blast. We drove there and back, played for a lot of cool people and made a lot of friends. This year, we have three shows and – most importantly – we all have badges. We’ll have much better time if only because we’ll be there for more than one day.

RC: Do you feel any pressure to make an impression in Austin?

MT: There’s not really much pressure. What has always helped us most is that we’re all such good friends and have so much fun together and that translates to the people we play in front of. We’re as excited to eat food at Jovita’s (restaurant/venue) as we are to play there!

Tonight’s show:

Gentleman Auction House with Elsinore, Everthus The Deadbeats & Grampall Jookabox

Bluebird, 2706 Olive St., $7

www.gentlemanauctionhouse.com

www.myspace.com/gentlemanauctionhouse

www.sxsw.com

Upcoming local shows

April 4 at the Billiken Club w/ Witch’s Hat & Bald Eagle

May 15 at Union Station’s Free Concert Series w/ The Bureau